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Shakespeare:  the  Man 


I 


f  11  ' 


^ 


I 


>/ 


SHAKESPEARE:    THE   MAN 

AN  ATTEMPT  TO  FIND  TRACES  OF 
THE  dramatist's  CHARACTER  IN 
HIS    DRAMAS 


By 


GOLDWIN    SMITH 


New  York 

Doubleday  &  McClure  Co. 

1900 


% 

4 


Copyright,  1899,  by 

DOUBLEDAY   &   McClURE  CO 


I 


t 


i 


Preface 


I 


An  attempt  to  find  traces  of  the  per- 
sonal character  of  Shakespeare  under  the 
dramatist  is,  it  need  hardly  be  said,  a  dif- 
ferent thing  from  an  interpretation  of 
Shakespeare's  art.  In  making  it  the 
writer  does  not  trespass  on  the  ground 
occupied  by  Coleridge,  Gervinus,  Dow- 
den,  and  Hiram  Corson. 

An  apology  may  seem  necessary  for 
quoting  in  full  some  well-known  pas- 
sages of  Shakespeare;  but  the  writer 
does  not  feel  sure  that  "in  these  most 
brisk  and  giddy-paced  times,"  when  a 
tidal-wave  of  popular  and  sensational  fic- 
tion is  flowing,  familiarity  with  Shakes- 
peare is  so  common  as  it  was  in  former 
days. 


-  ^ 


i 


Shakespeare:  the  Man 


Such  materials  as  there  are  for  Shakes- 
peare's personal  history,  or  for  the  history 
of  any  one  connected  with  him,  have  been 
gathered  with  the  most  loving  and 
persevering  industry.  Unhappily,  they 
amount  to  very  little.  Entries  in  munic- 
ipal records,  names  in  a  will,  a  lease,  or 
an  inventory,  tell  hardly  anything  of  the 
life  or  character  of  the  man.  That  orange 
has  now  been  squeezed  dry. 

It  would  seem  better  worth  while  to 
consider  under  what  general  influences- 
social,  political,  and  religious— the  life 
was  passed. 

Shakespeare  was  a  poet  of  the  Renais- 
sance and  of  the  Elizabethan  era.  Of 
the  Renaissance,  with  its  passion  for 
beauty  and  art,  its  joyous  release  from 

7 


Shakespeare:  the  Man 

asceticism,  and  not  only  from  asceticism, 
but  from  strict  morality,  its  tendency  to 
scepticism  in  ♦'eligion;  of  the  Elizabethan 
era  with  its  springtide  of  national  life, 
its  heroic  struggle  against  the  powers  of 
the  past,  its  love  of  adventure,  its  galaxy 
of  active  and  aspiring  spirits  in  every 
sphere. 

Born  in  1 564,  he  would  by  1 580  be  ob- 
servant and  open  to  impressions.  Be- 
tween 1 580  and  his  death  there  are  thirty- 
six  years  full  of  momentous  events;  the 
struggle  with  Spain ;  the  proclamation  of 
the  Papal  curse  against  England  in  her 
Queen;  the  Armada;  the  conflict  in 
France  between  the  League  and  the 
Huguenots;  the  insurrection  and  tragic 
end  of  Essex;  the  death  of  Elizabeth;  the 
accession  of  James;  the  union  of  the 
Crowns;  the  Gunpowder  Plot;  the  open- 
ing of  the  contest  between  the  Stuart 
King  and  his  Parliament;  the  marriage 
of  the  Princess  Elizabeth  with  the  Elector 
Palatine;  the  beginning  of  the  Thirty 
Years'  War.    During  the  last  two  decades 

8 


Shakespeare:  the  Man 


i 
i 


the  scene  had  been  changing.  Tudor 
monarchy  and  the  Renaissance  had  been 
passing  away,  Puritanism  had  developed 
its  force,  and  the  struggle  between  a 
Puritan  Parliament  and  the  Crown  for 
supreme  power  had  begun. 

Surroundings  must  tell,  and  in  the  work 
even  of  the  most  dramatic  of  dramatists 
the  man  can  hardly  fail  sometimes  to  ap- 
pear. There  are  things  which  strike  us 
as  said  for  their  own  sake  more  than  be- 
cause they  fit  the  particular  character; 
things  which  seem  said  with  special  feel- 
ing and  emphasis;  things  which  connect 
themselves  naturally  with  the  writer's 
personal  history.  There  are  things  which 
could  not  be  written,  even  dramatically, 
by  one  to  whose  beliefs  and  sentiments 
they  were  repugnant.  Any  knowledge 
which  is  displayed  must  of  course  be  the 
writer's  own;  so  must  any  proofs  of  in- 
sight, social  or  of  other  kinds.  Inference 
as  to  the  writer's  character  from  such 
passages  are  precarious,  no  doubt;  yet 
they  may  not  be  altogether  futile.     Thor- 

9 


'n 


Shakespeare:  the  Man 

oughly  dramatic  as  was  the  genius  of 
y^schylus  and  Sophocles,  we  do  not 
doubt  that  tiie  character  of  each,  as  de- 
picted by  Aristophanes  in  The  Frogs,  is 
shown,  hi  Corneille  and  Racine  we  see 
little  beyond  the  full-bottomed  wig;  but 
in  Moliere  character,  sympathies,  and  an- 
tipathies appear. 

h  must  be  remembered  that  Shakes- 
peare had  been  a  poet  before  he  became 
a  playwright. 

Lorenzo. — How  sweet  the  moonlight  sleeps  upon 
this  bank ! 
Here  will  we  sit,  and  let  the  sounds  of  musick 
Creep  in  our  ears ;  soft  stillness,  and  the  night, 
Become  the  touches  of  sweet  harmony. 
Sit,  Jessica :  Look  how  the  floor  of  heaven 
Is  thick  inlaid  with  patines  of  bright  gold ; 
There's  not  the  smallest  orb,  which  thou  behold'st, 
But  in  his  motion  like  an  angel  sings, 
Still  quiring  to  the  young-ey'd  cherubins: 
Such  harmony  is  in  immortal  souls  ; 
But,  whilst  this  muddy  vesture  of  decay 
Doth  grossly  close  it  in,  we  cannot  hear  it. — 

— Merchant  of  Venice,  V.,  it. 

These  lovely  lines  in  The  Merchant  of 

10 


i 


• 


Shakespeare:  the  Man 

Venice  have  no  special  connection  with 
the  characters  of  Lorenzo  and  Jessica  or 
with  the  action.  They  are  a  poetic  vol- 
untary. Some  things  in  Shakespeare 
transcend  any  stage,  and  would  utterly 
transcend  the  stage  of  the  Globe  theatre. 
The  Midsummer -Ni gM s  Dream  is  a  su- 
preme creation  of  aerial  fancy,  which  no 
gross  company  of  actors  and  actresses 
can  ever  worthily  present.  In  Hamlet 
there  is  a  philosophic  poem.  All  actors 
fail  in  the  leading  part.  The  man  who 
had  the  sensibility  to  feel  the  part  would 
hardly  have  stage  assurance  to  act  it. 
The  boyish  and  girlish  passion  of  Romeo 
and  Juliet,  again,  is  poetry.  No  mature 
actor  or  actress  could  feel  the  passion  or 
present  it  on  the  stage. 

Ben  Jonson  says  that  Shakespeare  had 
"small  Latin  and  less  Greek";  Milton 
says  of  him  that  he  "warbled  his  native 
wood  notes  wild";  in  other  words,  was 
not,  like  Ben  Jonson,  classically  cultured. 
He  had  in  fact  received  a  common  grs  i- 
mar  school  education,  and  knew  some- 

11 


I 


)  ■ 


Shakespeare:  the  Man 

thing  of  Latin  and  the  Latin  poets;  as  in 
Love's  Labour's  Lost  and  elsewhere  ap- 
pears. 
In  Sonnet  No.  CIV., 

Three  winters'  cold 
Have  from  the  forests  shook  three  summers'  pride, 

is  probably  a  version  of  Horace's  Sylvis 
hone  rem  decittit.  Shylock's  injunction  to 
Jessica  recalls  the  injunction  of  Horace 
{Odes,  IIL,  7)  to  Asterie;  and  the  descrip- 
tion of  the  horse  in  Mentis  and  Adonis  is 
evidently  suggested  by  a  pas^^age  in  the 
third  Georgic.  Of  the  ** small  Latin" 
there  is  abundant  proof.  Of  the  **  less 
Greek"  there  is  not  a  trace.  Nothing 
can  be  less  Hellenic  than  Troihts  and 
Cress/da  or  Tirnon  of  Athens.  French, 
Shakespeare  evidently  understood.  He 
had  read  Rabelais,  at  least  he  mentions 
Gargantua.  It  can  hardly  be  doubted 
that  he  understood  Italian.  But  the 
knowledge  which  he  had  practically  ac- 
quired and  carried  with  him  to  Town 
was  mainly  that  of  country  occupations, 

12 


I 


Shakespeare :  the  Man 

of  horses  and  hounds,  and  of  all  the 
flowers  upon  the  bank  where  the  wild 
thyme  grew.  To  this  in  Town  and  after- 
wards at  Court  he  added  a  thorough  in- 
sight into  the  social  world,  which  shows 
itself  in  the  well-known  advice  of  Polo- 
nius  to  Laertes,  and  other  passages,  such 
as  the  advice  of  Bertram's  mother  to 
Bertram  in  All's  Well  that  Ends  Well— 

Love  all,  trust  a  few, 
Do  wrong  to  none :  be  able  for  thine  enemy 
Rather  in  power  than  use ;  and  keep  thy  friend 
Under  thy  own  life's  key  :  be  check'd  for  silence, 
But  never  tax'd  for  speech.  — /.,  i. 

The  advice  of  Polonius  to  Laertes  may 
be  more  certainly  set  down  to  the  credit 
of  Shakespeare  himself,  because  it  really 
does  not  well  suit  the  character  of  Polo- 
nius, who  is  generally  represented  as  a 
pompous  old  fool.  A  manual  of  man- 
ners and  social  conduct  might  almost  be 
gleaned  out  of  Shakespeare;  and  Shakes- 
peare's social  teaching  is  not  like  that  of 
Chesterfield;  it  hrs  for  its  basis  genuine 
qualities, — 

13 


\ 


I 


Shakespeare:  the  Man 

This  above  all, — To  thine  o\mi  self  be  true ; 
And  it  must  follow  as  the  night  the  day, 
Thou  canst  not  then  be  false  to  any  man. 

— llatnlct^  /.,  Hi, 

That  Shakespeare  had  a  cultivated  taste 
for  music,  if  he  was  not  himself  a  musi- 
cian, appears  not  only  from  his  anathema 
upon  the  man  who  has  no  music  in  his 
soul,  which  would  have  borne  hard  on 
Dr.  Johnson,  but  from  passages  such  as 
the  speech  of  the  Duke  in  Twelfth  Night 
and  that,  already  mentioned,  of  Lorenzo 
in  The  Merchant  of  Venice.  Fine  music 
seems  to  have  been  Shakespeare's  acme 
of  enjoyment. 

The  attempts  to  make  out  that  Shakes- 
peare knew  law  come  to  nothing.  Liv- 
ing in  London,  he  no  doubt  mingled  with 
Templars  as  well  as  with  other  people, 
and  might  easily  pick  up  some  phrases. 
There  is  no  proof  of  anything  more. 

It  is  deemed  by  the  biographers  im- 
probable that  Shakespeare  had  travelled. 
In  Love's  Labour's  Lost,  Act  III.,  Scene 
i.,  the  old  reading  is 

14 


I 


Shakespeare:  the  Man 

This  Sigiiior  Julio's  giant-chvarf, 
Dan  Cupid. 

For  this  has  been  conjecturally  substituted 
by  critics  who  did  not  understand  the 
allusion, 

This  senior-junior,  giant-dwarf, 
Dan  Cupid, 

which  is  nonsense. 

Julio  Romano,  in  a  fresco  in  the  Vati- 
can, introduced  the  figure  of  Gradasso, 
"a  giant-dwarf"  of  pigmy  stature  but 
great  muscular  power,  thus  resembling 
Cupid  in  the  combination  of  diminutive- 
ness  and  might.  To  this  fresco  Shakes- 
peare evidently  refers.  Had  he  seen 
it?  In  the  Winter's  Tale,  Act  V.,  Scene 
ii.,  he  expresses  his  admiration  of  Ro- 
mano, though,  curiously  enough,  not  as 
a  painter  but  as  a  sculptor  — 

Third  Gentleman. — No :  the  princess  hearing  of 
her  mother's  statue,  which  is  in  the  keeping  of  Pau- 
lina,— a  piece  many  years  in  doing,  and  now  newly 
performed  by  that  rare  Italian  master,  Julio  Romano ; 
who,  had  he  himself  eternity,  and  could  put  breath 
into  his  work,  would  beguile  natu^'e  of  her  custom, 
so  perfectly  he  is  her  ape. 

15 


Shakespeare:  the  Man 

Shakespeare's  j^.tcures  of  kalian  life 
seem  to  show  familiarity  with  it,  and  his 
epithets,  such  as  "old  Verona,"  are  ap- 
posite. Looseness  about  Italian  geog- 
raphy, if  it  can  be  proved,  would  not 
be  a  strong  argument  on  the  other  side. 
If  an  Englishman  had  travelled  anywhere 
in  those  days,  it  would  probably  have 
been  in  Italy. 

In  history  Shakespeare  was  not  learned. 
He  makes  the  Duke  of  Austria  responsible 
for  the  death  of  Richard  I.  He  follows 
the  chroniclers  blindly.  On  the  other 
hand,  he  had  a  wonderful  eye  for  his- 
torical character.  He  dresses  his  Romans 
in  cloaks  and  hats  ;  but  his  delineation  of 
Caesar,  Brutus,  Cassius,  and  Mark  Antony 
cannot  be  surpassed.  "Speak;  Caesar 
is  turned  to  hear"  ;  and  "I  rather  tell 
thee  what  is  to  be  feared.  Than  what  I 
fear  ;  for  always  I  am  Caesar." 

He  sometimes  betrays  what  seems 
strange  ignorance.  He  introduces  artil- 
lery in  the  reign  of  John  ;  gives  Bohemia 
a  seacoast ;  and  introduces  nunneries  at 

16 


Shakespeare:  the  Man 

Athens.  But  may  not  this  rather  be  said 
to  be  simple  disregard  of  the  limitations 
of  time  and  place  ?  Athens  in  the  Mid- 
summer-Night's  Dream  is  not  the  classic 
city,  but  an  kalian  Duchy  of  which 
Theseus  is  the  Duke.  When  the  fashion 
was  introduced  of  a  spectacular  repre- 
sentation of  Shakespeare's  plays  and  the 
manager  aimed  at  being  strictly  historical, 
some  of  the  results  were  grotesque.  In 
the  Midsummer-Nighf  s  Dream  Lysander 
and  Demetrius  were  represented  as  going 
to  fight  a  duel,  a  thing  wholly  foreign 
to  Hellenic  ideas,  with  their  Hellenic 
swords  ;  and  Theseus,  in  classic  attire, 
threatened  to  put  Hermia,  a  o  in  classic 
attire,  into  a  nunnery,  in  Macbeth, 
Shakespeare's  idea  of  the  Scotch  mon- 
archy no  doubt  was  something  magnifi- 
cently royal,  such  as  might  tempt  am- 
bition. But  the  spectacular  manager 
thought  he  vvas  showing  his  fidelity  to 
history  by  introducing  the  barbarous 
simplicity  of  primeval  Scotland,  and  Mac- 
beth was  represented  as  climbing  through 

17 


Shakespeare:  the  Man 

regicide  and  crime  to  the  dazzling  eleva- 
tion of  a  king  enthroned  on  a  wooden 
stool  and  banqueting  on  apples. 

The  mystery  of  Shakespeare's  Sonnets 
will  never  be  solved.  Whit  is  certain  is 
that  the  series  is  a  product  of  the  Renais- 
sance, sometimes  burning  with  intense 
and  irregular  passion.  Morals  of  the 
Court  of  Elizabeth  were  loose,  like  those 
of  other  Courts  of  Europe  at  the  time, 
the  vestal  virginity  of  the  Queen  not- 
withstanding. It  seems  to  be  proved 
that  the  poet's  marriage  with  Anne  Hath- 
away took  place  not  before  it  was  neces- 
sary; that  it  was  enforced,  and  that  he 
afterwards  saw  little  of  his  wife  and  chil- 
dren for  eleven  years,  so  that  he  might 
write  with  feeling. 

War  is  no  strife 
To  the  dark  house  and  the  detested  wife. 

—AlPs  IVell  that  Ends  Well,  //.,  Hi. 

Prospero's  injunction  to  Ferdinand  in 
The  Tempest  is  so  strange  and  apparently 
gratuitous,  that  we  can  hardly  help  re- 

18 


Shakespeare :  the  Man 

garding  it  as  an  outpouring  of  the  poet's 
bitter  experience. — 

Proapero, — Then,  as  luy  gift,  and  thine  own  acqui- 
sition 
Worthily  purchased,  take  my  daughter  :     But 
If  thou  dost  break  lier  virgin  knot  before 
All  sanctimonious  ceremonies  may 
With  full  and  holy  rite  be  minister'd, 
No  sweet  aspersion  shall  the  heavens  let  fall 
To  make  this  contract  grow ;  but  barren  hate, 
Sour-ey'd  disdain,  and  discord,  shall  bestrew 
The  union  of  your  bed  with  weeds  so  loathly. 
That  you  shall  hate  it  both  :  therefore,  take  heed, 
As  Hymen's  lamps  shall  light  you. 

—  The  Tempest ^  IV.,  i. 

All  this  considered,  we  have  reason  to 
be  thankful  for  the  essential  soundness 
of  Shakespeare's  morality,  especially  with 
regard  to  marriage.  There  is  not  in  him 
anything  of  the  evil  spirit  of  the  Restora- 
tion drama.  Matrimony  with  him  is  al- 
ways holy,  and  though  attacks  upon  its 
sanctity  form  the  subject  of  more  than 
one  of  his  plots,  he  carries  it  through 
them  inviolate.  There  is  no  Don  Juan 
among  his  heroes. 

19 


Shakespeare:  the  Man 

It  must  be  owned  that  in  Measure  for 
Measure,  in  some  of  the  Falstaff  scenes, 
and  elsewhere,  Shakespeare  plays  with 
certain  subjects  in  a  way  suggestive  of 
looseness  in  sexual  morality.  There  is  a 
curious  passage  in  Hamlet  (II.,  i.),  where 
Polonius  seems  to  think  "drabbing" 
would  not  disgrace  his  son,  but  that 
incontinence,  by  which  appears  to  be 
meant  illicit  intercourse  with  other  than 
courtesans,  would.  Opinion  on  these 
points  has  greatly  advanced  since  Shakes- 
peare, though  governments  still  bow  to 
supposed  necessity. 

Too  often  the  poet  stoops  to  obscen- 
ities. This  is  partly  the  vice  of  the 
Renaissance,  which  shows  itself  to  an 
extreme  extent  in  Rabelais.  Partly,  it  is 
the  mark  of  the  ages  before  delicacy, 
which  gave  birth  to  Boccaccio.  Partly, 
perhaps  principally,  it  is  a  condescension 
to  the  tastes  of  the  audience  of  the  Globe 
theatre.  From  Hamlet's  advice  to  the 
Players,  we  see  that  there  was  a  great 
demand    for    buffoonery.      Perhaps    it 

20 


Shakespeare:  the  Man 

would  be  charitable  to  surmise  that 
Shakespeare  sought  to  embrace  ihe  whole 
of  human  nature  as  it  presented  itself  in 
his  time.  His  obscenity  is  mere  gross- 
ness;  it  is  not  provocative  of  lust.  At 
worst,  in  him  all  is  nature.  He  is  never 
procurer  to  the  lords  of  Hell.  There  is 
nothing  in  him  so  disgusting  as  the 
laborious  filth  offered  by  Massinger  as  a 
tribute  to  the  taste  of  a  vulgar  audience 
in  the  comic  scenes  of  The  Virgin 
Martyr. 

Shakespeare  is  said  to  have  died  of  the 
effects  of  a  drinking  bout.  But  if  the 
tradition  is  true  the  drinking  bout  was 
probably  an  exception,  for  he  evidently 
abhors  excess. 


Horatio.  Is  it  a  custom  ? 

Hajulet.     Ay,  marry,  is't : 
But  to  my  mind,— though  I  am  native  here, 
And  to  the  manner  born, — it  is  a  custom 
More  honour'd  in  the  breach,  tlian  the  observance. 
This  heavy-headed  revel,  east  and  west, 
Makes  us  traduc'd,  and  tax'd  of  other  nations  : 
They  clepe  us,  drunkards,  and  with  s\\  inish  phrase 

21 


Shakespeare:  the  Man 

Soil  our  addition ;  and,  indeed,  it  takes 

From  our  achievements,  though  perform'd  at  height, 

The  pith  and  marrow  of  our  attribute. 

— Hamlet^  I.,  w. 


He  refers  to  the  same  national  disgrace 


in    Othello,   Act  II.,   Scene  iii.    In 
same  scene  we  have  — 


the 


Cassio. — Not  to-night,  good  lago;  I  have  very 
poor  and  unliappy  brains  for  drinking :  I  could  well 
wish  courtesy  would  invent  some  other  custom  of  en- 
tertainment. 

Cassio,— O  thou  invisible  spirit  of  wine,  if  thou 

hast  no  name  to  be  known  by,  let  us  call  thee 

devil ! 

Cassio.— \  remember  a  mass  of  things,  but  nothing 
distinctly;  a  quarrel,  but  nothing  wherefore.— O, 
that  men  should  put  an  enemy  in  their  mouths,  to 
steal  away  their  brains!  that  we  should,  with  joy, 
revel,  pleasure,  and  applause,  transform  ourselves 
into  beasts ! 


I 


Portia, 
sponge. 


will  do  anything,  Nerissa,"  says 
'ere    I   will    be    married    to    a 


22 


Shakespeare:  the  Man 

Let  me  be  your  servant ; 
Though  I  look  old,  yet  I  am  strong  and  lusty; 
For  in  my  youth  I  never  did  apply 
Hot  and  rebellious  liquors  in  my  blood  ; 
Nor  did  not  with  unbashful  forehead  woo 
The  means  of  weakness  and  debility ; 
Therefore  my  age  is  as  a  lusty  winter, 
Frosty,  but  kindly. 

—As  You  Like  It,  II.,  in. 

Wiiat  were  Shakespeare's  political  sen- 
timents? In  his  time,  during  the  early 
part  of  it  at  least,  everybody  was  royalist. 
Domestic  dissensions  were  suspended  by 
the  struggle  with  Catholic  powers,  and 
the  Queen  was  idolized  as  impersonating 
the  national  cause.  Supremely  royalist, 
of  course,  were  the  Lord  Chamberlain's  or 
the  King's  Players.  In  three  plays  prob- 
ably, in  the  Midsnmmer-NighV s  Dream, 
in  Henry  yill.,  assuming  the  genuine- 
ness of  the  passage,  and  in  The  Tempest, 
the  courtier  is  distinctly  seen. 

The  Midsitmmer-Night' s  Dream  was 
apparently  performed  at  some  Court 
marriage,  and  what  marriage  we  can- 
not now  tell,  though  the  author  of  the 

23 


Shakespeare:  the  Man 

excellent  article  on  Shakespeare  in  the 
Dictionary  of  National  Biography  con- 
jectures that  it  was  either  that  of  Lucy 
Harrington  to  Edward  Russell,  third  Earl 
of  Bedford,  on  the  12th  of  December, 
1594,  or  that  of  William  Stanley,  Earl  of 
Derby,  at  Greenwich,  on  the  24th  of 
January,  1594-5.  There  cannot  be  a 
doubt  that  Elizabeth  was  present  and 
heard  the  well-known  compliment  to  the 
"  fair  vestal  throned  by  the  West."  But 
she  also  heard: 

"  Thrice  blessed  they,  that  master  so  their  blood 
To  undergo  such  maiden  pilgrimage. 
But  earthlier  happy  is  the  rose  distilled 
Than  that,  which,  withering  on  the  virgin  thorn, 
Grows,  lives  and  dies,  in  single  blessedness." 

— Midsummer-Night^ s  Dream ^  I.,  i. 

Was  not  this  advice,  most  delicately 
given,  to  the  fair  vestal  to  marry,  and 
thus  fulfil  the  desire  of  all  loyal  and 
Protestant  England  ? 

The  Tempest  was  acted  before  the 
Court  when  Frederick,  Elector  Palatine, 
afterwards  the  luckless  King  of  Bohemia, 

24 


i£ 


,*''U. 


Shakespeare :  the  Man 

came  over  to  claim  his  bride,  the  Princess 
Elizabeth,  darling  of  all  Protestant  hearts. 
It  embodies  a  Masque,  such  as  was  fash- 
ionable at  weddings,  and  which  was 
perhaps  performed,  not  by  the  Players, 
but  by  lords  and  ladies  of  the  Court. 
There  cannot  be  a  doubt  that  these  lines 
refer  to  England: — 

Irts. — Ceres,  most  bounteous  lady,  thy  rich  leas 

Of  wheat,  rye>  barley,  vetches,  oats,  and  peas ; 

Tiiy  turfy  mountains,  where  live  nibbling  sheep, 

And  flat  meads,  thatch'd  with  stover,  them  to  keep; 

Thy  banks  with  peonied  and  lilied  brims, 

Which  spongy  April  at  thy  hest  betrims. 

To  make  cold  nymphs  chaste  crowns :  and  thy  broom 

groves, 

Whose  shadow  the  dismissed  bachelor  loves, 

Being  lass-lorn ;  thy  pole-clipt  vineyard ; 

And  thy  sea-marge,  steril,  and  rocky-hard, 

Where  tihou  thyself  dost  air : 

—  Tempest ^  IV.,  i. 

The  turfy  mountains  with  the  nibbling 
sheep  are  evidently  the  downs;  and  the 
pole-clipt  vineyards  are  most  likely  the 
hop-grounds. 

The  words  of  Ferdinand, 

25 


Shakespeare:  the  Man 

Let  me  live  here  ever; 
So  rare  a  wonder'd  father,  and  a  wife, 
Make  this  place  Paradise — 

— Tempest y  IV.,  i, 

would  be  very  apt  in  the  mouth  of  the 
young  Elector  who  had  come  over  to  Eng- 
land to  be  married  to  James'  daughter. 

It  would  have  been  strange  if  the 
learned  King  James  had  not  taken  to 
himself  the  character  of  Prospero,  "re- 
puted in  dignity,  and  for  the  liberal  arts 
without  a  parallel " ;  or  if  he  had  not  seen 
in  the  conspirators  of  different  grades  the 
authors  of  the  Gunpowder  Plot  and  the 
enemies  of  prerogative  in  the  House  of 
Commons.  He  could  not  have  failed  to 
enjoy  such  satire  on  political  agitation 
as  — 

Gonzalo. — I'  the  commonwealth  I  would  by  con- 
traries 
Execute  all  things  :  for  no  kind  of  traffic 
Would  I  admit;  no  name  of  magistrate  ; 
Letters  should  not  be  known ;  riches,  poverty, 
And  use  of  service,  none ;  contract,  successions, 
Bourn,  bound  of  land,  tilth,  vineyard,  none  : 
No  use  of  metal,  corn,  or  wine,  or  oil : 

26 


Shakespeare :  the  Man 

No  occupation  ;  all  men  idle,  all ; 

And  women  too ;  but  innocent  and  pure : 

No  sovereignty : — 

Sebastian. — And  yet  he  would  be  king  on't. 

Antonio. — The  latter  end  of  his  commonwealth  for- 
gets the  beginning. 

Gonzalo. — All  things  in  common,  nature  should 
produce 
Without  sweat  or  endeavour  :  treason,  felony, 
Sword,  pike,  knife,  gun,  nor  need  of  any  engine, 
Would  I  not  have ;  but  nature  should  bring  forth, 
Of  its  own  kind,  all  foizon,  all  abundance, 
To  feed  my  innocent  people.        — Tempest ^  II.,  i. 


Raleigh,  who  was  a  courtie.,  even  to  a 
painful  extent,  in  his  Prerogative  of  Par- 
liaments  sums  up  a  highly  royalist  history 
of  the  origin  of  the  Great  Charter  by  say- 
ing that  it  "had  first  an  obscure  birth 
from  usurpation,  and  was  secondly  fos- 
tered and  showed  to  the  world  by 
rebellion."  Shakespeare,  in  King  John, 
says  not  a  word  about  the  Great  Charter, 
or  anything  connected  with  it.  If  the 
Barons  quarrel  with  the  King,  it  is  not 
about  political  rights,  but  on  account  of 
the  deposition  and   murder  of  Arthur. 

27 


Shakespeare:  the  Man 

Even  that  crime  is  softened  by  reducing 
it  to  intention,  Arthur's  death  being 
represented  as  an  accident.  The  sub- 
mission to  the  Pope  is  managed  in  a  way 
as  little  humiliating  as  possible.  In  the 
end,  John  is  the  national  King,  supported 
by  English  patriots  against  the  French 
pretender  and  invader. 

Of  Henry  J/ 11 1.,  though  by  no  means 
the  v^hole  play  is  Shakespearian,  it  is 
pretty  certain  that  the  whole  passed  under 
Shakespeare's  hand,  and  in  it  Henry  is 
presented  as  an  august,  magnificent  and 
apparently  beneficent  lord,  without  a 
suggestion  of  the  tyrant. 

We  see,  too,  where  the  Merry  Wives 
of  Windsor  was  performed. 


Mistress  Quickly, — About,  about; 
Sear:h  Windsor  castle,  elves,  within  and  out: 
Strew  good  luck,  ouphes,  on  every  sacred  room ; 
That  it  may  stand  till  the  perpetual  doom. 
In  state  as  wholesome,  as  in  state  'tis  fit; 
Worthy  the  owner,  and  the  owner  it. 
The  several  chairs  of  order  look  you  scour 
With  juice  of  balm,  and  every  precious  flower : 

28 


; 


Shakespeare :  the  Man 


I 


Each  fair  instalment,  coat,  and  several  crest, 

With  loyal  blazon,  evermore  be  blest ! 

And  nightly,  meadow-fairies,  look,  you  sing, 

Like  to  the  Garter's  compass,  in  a  ring : 

The  expressure  that  it  bears,  green  let  it  be. 

More  fertile-fresh  than  all  the  field  to  see  ; 

And,  Hony  soit  qui  inal y  pense^  write. 

In  emerald  tufts,  flowers  purple,  blue  and  white : 

Like  sapphire,  pearl,  and  rich  embroidery, 

Buckled  beiovv  fair  knighthood's  bending  knee : 

Fairies  use  flowers  for  their  charactery. 

— Merry  Wives  of  Windsor ^  V.^  v. 

The  strong  language  about  the  divine 
character  of  royalty,  and  the  indelibility 
of  the  coronation  balm,  put  into  the 
mouth  of  Richard  11.  is  in  character  and 
may  be  regarded  as  dramatic.  On  the 
other  hand,  there  are  pretty  strong  ex- 
pressions about  the  sacredness  of  royalty 
elsewhere. 

To  do  this  deed, 
Promotion  follows  •     If  I  could  find  example 
Of  thousands,  that  hau  struck  anointed  Kings, 
And  flourished  after,  I'd  not  do't  :  but  since 
Nor  brass,  nor  stone,  nor  parchment,  bears  not  one, 
Let  villainy  itself  forswcar't. 

—  Winter'' s  Tale,  /.,  iV. 
29 


Shakespeare:  the  Man 
And  in  Macbeth,  Act  II.,  Scene  iii. 

MacDnJf. — Confusion  now  hath  made  his  master- 
piece ; 
Most  sacrilegious  murder  hath  broke  ope 
The  Lord's  anointed  temple,  and  stele  thence 
The  life  o'  the  building. 

In  Macbeth,  Act  IV.,  Scene  iii.,  there  is 
a  passage  which,  if  the  poet  is  speaking, 
intimates  his  belief  in  touching  for  the 
King's  Evil.— 

Doctor. — Ay,  sir :  there  are  a  crew  of  wretched 
souls, 
That  stay  his  cure  :  their  malady  convinces 
The  great  array  of  art ;  but,  at  his  touch, 
Such  sanctity  hath  heaven  given  his  hand, 
They  presently  amend. 

Ox\  the  other  hand,  a  popular  mon- 
archy, such  as  James  I.'s  was  not,  but 
that  of  his  son  Henry  might  have  been, 
is  evidently  Shakespeare's  ideal.  He 
shows  it  in  the  dialogue  between  Henry 
V.  and  the  soldiers  before  the  battle  of 
Agincourt.  His  King,  however  exalted, 
is  a  man  and  not  a  fetich.  "Though  I 
speak  it  to  you,"  Henry  is  made  to  say  — 

30 


1 


Shakespeare:  the  Man 

"  I  think,  the  king  is  but  a  man,  as  I  am ;  the 
violet  smells  to  him,  as  it  cloth  to  me ;  the  clement 
shows  to  him,  as  it  cloth  to  me ;  all  his  senses  luive 
but  human  conditions;  his  ceremonies  laid  by,  in  his 
nakedness  he  appears  but  a  man ;  and  though  his 
affections  are  higher  mounted  than  ours,  yet,  when 
they  stoop,  they  stoop  with  the  like  wing;  therefore 
when  he  sees  reason  of  fears,  as  we  do,  his  fears,  out 
of  doubt,  be  of  the  same  relish  as  ours  are  :  Yet,  in 
reason,  no  man  should  possess  him  with  any  appear- 
ance of  fear,  lest  he,  by  showing  it,  should  dishearten 
his  army." 

— Henry  f',  IV.^  i. 

The  dramatist  understands  that  it  was 
by  a  noble  comradeship  between  King 
and  soldier  and  the  King's  hold  upon  the 
soldier's  heart  that  at  Agincourt  despair 
was  turned  into  victory. 

The  poor  condemned  English, 
Like  sacrifices,  by  their  watchful  fires 
Sit  patiently,  and  inly  ruminate 
The  morning's  danger ;  and  their  gesture  sad, 
Investing  lank-lean  cheeks,  and  war-worn  coats, 
Presenteth  them  unto  the  gazing  moon 
So  many  horrid  ghosts.     O,  now,  who  will  behold 
The  royal  captain  of  this  ruin'd  band, 
Walking  from  watch  to  watch,  from  tent  to  tent, 

31 


Shakespeare:  the  Man 

Let  him  cry — Praise  and  glory  on  his  head ! 

For  forth  he  goes,  and  visits  all  his  host ; 

Bids  them  good-morrow,  with  a  modest  smile ; 

And  calls  them — brothers,  friends,  and  countrymen. 

Upon  his  royal  face  there  is  no  note 

How  dread  an  army  hath  enrounded  him  ; 

Nor  doth  he  dedicate  one  jot  of  color 

Unto  the  weary  and  all-watched  night; 

But  freshly  looks,  and  overbears  attaint, 

With  cheerful  semblance,  and  sweet  majesty ; 

That  every  wretch,  pining  and  pale  before, 

Beholding  him,  plucks  comfort  from  his  looks: 

A  largess  universal,  like  the  sun, 

His  liberal  eye  doth  give  to  every  one, 

Thawing  cold  fear. 

— Henry  F.,  IV. 

The  worthlessness  of  mere  state  is  one 
of  his  commonplaces. 

O  ceremony,  show  me  but  thy  worth ! 

What  is  the  soul  of  adoraliv  :i  ? 

Art  thou  ^.ught  else  but  pi:'.ce,  degree,  and  form, 

Creating  awe  and  fear  in  other  men  ? 

Wherein  thou  art  less  happy  being  fear'd, 

Than  they  in  fearing. 

— Henry  V.,  IV.,  i. 

Shakespeare  in  his  political  and  social 
sentiment  must  have  been  conservative. 

32 


Shakespeare :  the  Man 

We  can  scarcely  doubt  that  it  is  he  v/ho 
speaks  in  Troihis  and  Crcssida  (I.,  iii.)— 

The  specialty  of  rule  hath  been  neglected  : 
And,  look,  how  many  Grecian  tents  do  stand 
Hollow  upon  this  plain,  so  many  hollow  factions, 
When  that  the  general  is  not  like  the  hive. 
To  whom  the  foragers  shall  all  repair, 
What  honey  is  expected?     Degree  being  vizarded, 
The  unworthiest  shows  as  fairly  in  the  mask. 
The  heavens  themselves,  the  planets,  and  this  center, 
Observe  degree,  priority,  and  place, 
Insisture,  course,  jn-oportion,  season,  form, 
Office,  and  custom,  in  all  line  of  order: 
And  therefore  is  the  glorious  planet,  Sol, 
In  noble  eminence  enthron'd  and  spher'd 
Amidst  the  other;  whose  med'cinable  eye 
Corrects  the  ill  aspects  of  planets  evil. 
And  posts,  like  the  commandment  of  a  king, 
Sans  check,  to  good  and  bad  :  But,  when  the  planets. 
In  evil  mixture,  to  disorder  wander. 
What  plagues,  aiid  what  portents  ?  what  mutiny  ? 
What  ragings  of  the  sea  ?  shaking  of  earth  ? 
Commotion  in  the  winds  ?  frights,  changes,  horrors. 
Divert  and  crack,  rend  and  deracinate 
The  unity  and  married  calm  of  states 
Quite  from  their  fixture  ?    O,  when  degree  is  shak'd. 
Which  is  the  ladder  of  all  high  designs. 
The  enterprise  is  sick  I     How  could  communities, 

33 


Shakespeare:  the  Man 

Degrees  in  schools,  and  brotherhoods  in  cities, 

Peaceful  commerce  from  dividable  shores, 

The  primogenitive  and  due  of  birth, 

Prerogative  of  age,  crowns,  sceptres,  laurels, 

But  by  degree,  stand  in  aulhentick  place  ? 

Take  but  degree  away,  untune  that  string, 

And,  hark,  what  discord  follows  !  each  thing  meets 

In  mere  oppugnancy  :    The  bounded  waters 

Should  lift  their  bosoms  higher  than  the  shores, 

And  make  a  sop  of  all  this  solid  globe  : 

Strength  should  be  lord  of  imbecility. 

And  the  rude  son  should  strike  his  father  dead : 

Force  should  be  riglat ;  or,  rather,  right  and  wrong, 

(Between  whose  endless  jar  justice  resides,) 

Should  lose  their  names,  and  so  should  justice  too. 

Then  everything  includes  itself  in  power, 

Power  into  will,  will  into  appetite ; 

And  appetite,  an  universal  wolf. 

So  doubly  seconded  with  will  and  power, 

Must  make  perforce  an  universal  prey, 

And,  last,  eat  up  himself. 

The  following  passage,  also  against  de- 
mocracy, is  in  the  mouth  of  Coriolanus 
dramatic,  but  it  is  also  emphatic, — 

No,  take  more : 
What  may  be  sworn  by,  both  divine  and  human, 
Seal  what  I  end  withal ! — This  double  worship, — 

34 


Shakespeare:  the  Man 

Where  one  part  does  disdain  with  cause,  the  other 
Insult  without  all  reason ;  where  gentry,  title,  wis- 
dom 

Cannot  conclude,  but  by  the  yea  and  no 
Of  general  ignorance,— it  must  omit 
Real  necessities,  and  give  way  the  while 
To  unstable  slightness;  purposes  so  barr'd,  it  follows 
Nothmg  is   done  to  purpose:     Therefore,  beseech 
you,— 

You  that  will  be  less  fearful  than  discreet 
That  love  the  fundamental  part  of  state, 
More  than  you  doubt  the  change  oft;  that  prefer 
A  noble  life  before  a  long,  and  wish 
To  jump  a  body  with  a  dangerous  physick 
That's  sure  of  death  without  it,-at  once  pluck  out 
Ihe  multitudinous  tongue,  let  them  not  lick 
The  sweet  which  is  their  poison :  your  dishonour 
Mangles  true  judgment,  and  bereaves  the  state 
Of  that  integrity  which  should  become  it; 
Not  having  the  power  to  do  the  good  it  would, 
For  the  ill  which  doth  control  it. 

—  Coriolanusy  III.,  {. 

It  should  be  remembered  that  revolu- 
tion in  its  most  terrible  form,  that  of  the 
risings  of  the  Anabaptists  on  the  conti- 
nent, had  not  been  very  long  laid  in  its 
grave. 

35 


Shakespeare:  the  Man 

Some  passages  are  instinct  with  in- 
tense dislike  of  mobs  and  mob-rule.  The 
words  in  Coriolanus  are  in  character,  but 
they  are  strong, — 

I  heard  him  swear, 
Were  he  to  stand  for  consul,  never  would  he 
Appear  i'  the  n;arket-place,  nor  on  him  put 
The  napless  vesture  of  humility ; 
Nor,  showing  (as  the  manner  is)  his  wounds 
To  the  people,  beg  their  stinking  breaths. 

—  CoriolanuSy  II.,  i. 

So  in  Julius  Ccvsar,  what  follows  is 
full  of  contempt  for  the  folly  and  fickle- 
ness of  the  rabble. — 

Casca — I  can  as  well  be  hanged,  as  tell  the  man- 
ner of  it :  it  was  mere  foolery.  I  did  not  mark  it. 
I  saw  Mark  Antony  offer  him  a  crown ; — yet  'twas 
not  a  crown  neither,  'twas  one  of  these  coronets ; — 
and,  as  I  told  you,  he  put  it  by  once ;  but,  for  all 
that,  to  my  thinking,  he  would  fain  have  had  it. 
Then  he  offered  it  to  him  again:  \^  ..  he  put  it  by 
again  :  but,  to  my  thinking,  he  v  .^«  v.  ;  *  loath  to  lay 
his  fingers  off  it.  And  then  he  ji/ered  it  the  third 
time ;  he  put  it  the  third  time  by :  and  still  as  he  re- 
fused it,  the  rabblemcnt  hooted,  and  clapped  their 
chopped  hands,  and  threw  up  their  sweaty  nightcaps, 

36 


Shakespeare:  the  Man 

and  uttered  such  a  deal  of  stinking  breath  because 
Coesar  refused  the  crown,  that  it  had  ahnost  choked 
Qesar;  for  he  swooned,  and  fell  down  at  it:  And 
for  mine  own  part,  I  durst  not  laugh,  for  fear  of 
opening  my  lips,  and  receiving  the  bad  air. 

— Jiclius  Cccsar,  /.,  ii. 


"Stinking  breaths,"  "chopped  hands" 
and  "sweaty  nightcaps"  are  terms  not 
only  of  aversion  but  of  disgust. 

The  travesty  of  Cade's  manifesto  in 
Henry  VI.  is  fresh  at  the  present  day 
and  used  as  ammunition  by  modern  con- 
servative writers  and  speakers. 

Cade. — Be  brave  then;  for  your  captain  is  brave, 
and  vows  reformation.  There  shall  be,  in  England, 
seven  half-penny  loaves  sold  for  a  penny ;  the  three- 
hooped  pot  shall  have  ten  hoops;  and  I  will  make  it 
felony,  to  drink  small  beer;  all  the  realm  shall  be  in 
common,  and  in  C'^eapside  shall  my  palfrey  go  to 
grass.    And,  when  I  am  king,  (as  king  I  will  be) 

All. — God  save  your  majesty  ! 

Cade. — I  thank  you,  good  people  ! — there  shall  be 
no  money ;  all  shall  eat  and  drink  on  my  score ;  and 
I  will  apparel  them  all  in  one  livery,  that  they  may 
agree  like  brothers,  and  worship  me  their  lord. 

— King  Henry  VI. ^  Part  II.,  IV.,  ii. 
37 


Shakespeare:  the  Man 

Demagogism  is  an  object  of  dislike. 
"I  love  the  people,"  says  the  Duke  in 
Measure  for  Measure^ 

But  do  not  like  to  stage  me  to  their  eyes : 
Tliough  it  do  well,  I  do  not  relish  well 
Their  loud  applause,  and  aves  vehement ; 
Nor  do  I  think  the  man  of  safe  discretion, 
That  does  affect  it. 

— Measure  for  Measure j  I.,  i. 

At  the  same  time  there  are  not  want- 
ing passages  breathing  a  strong  sense  of 
the  injustice  and  inequalities  of  society, 
such  as  a  social  radical  might  be  glad  to 
repeat. 

A  man  may  see  how  this  world  goes,  with  no  eyes. 
Look  with  thine  eyes:  see  how  yon*  justice  rails 
upon  yon'  simple  thief.  Hark,  in  thine  ear :  change 
places  ;  and,  handy-dandy,  which  is  the  justice,  which 
is  the  thief?  — King  Lear^  IF.,  vi. 

Poor  naked  wretches,  whereso  er  you  are, 
That  bide  the  pelting  of  this  pitiless  storm, 
How  shall  your  houseless  heads,  and  unfed  sides. 
Your  loop'd  and  window'd  raggedness  defend  you 
From  seasons  such  as  these  ?    O,  I  have  ta'en 
Too  little  care  of  this !     Take  physick,  pomp ; 

38 


Shakespeare:  the  Man 

Expose  thyself  to  feel  what  wretches  feel ; 
That  thou  may'st  shake  the  supertlux  to  them, 
And  show  the  heavens  more  just. 

— King  Lear,  III.,  iv. 

Gloster.—\\(t\Q,  take  this  purse,  thou  whom  the 
heaven's  plagues 
Have  humbled  to  all  strokes :  that  I  am  wretched. 
Makes  thee  the  happier  :— Heavens,  deal  so  still! 
Let  the  superfluous,  and  lust-dieted  man. 
That  slaves  your  ordinance,  that  will  not  see 
Because  he  doth  not  feel,  feel  your  power  quickly ; 
So  distribution  should  undo  excess. 
And  each  man  have  enough. 

— Ki}2g  Lear,  IV.,  i. 

O,  that  estates,  degrees  and  offices, 
Were  not  deriv'd  corruptly !  and  that  clear  honour 
Were  purchas'd  by  the  merit  of  the  wearer ! 
How  many  then  should  cover,  that  stand  bare  ? 
How  many  be  commanded,  that  command  ? 
How  much  low  peasantry  would  then  be  glean 'd 
From   the   true   seed  of  honour?    and   how   much 

honour 
Pick'd  from  the  chaff  and  ruin  of  the  times, 
To  be  new  varnish'd  ? 

— Merchant  of  Venice,  II.,  ix. 

In  a  passage  in  Romeo  and  Juliet  ih^xe. 
is  a  touch  of  sympathy  for  the  castaway. 

39 


Shakespeare :  the  Man 

Art  thou  so  bare,  and  full  of  wretchedness, 
And  fear'st  to  die  ?  famine  is  in  thy  checks, 
Need  and  oppression  starvetli  in  thy  eyes. 
Upon  thy  back  hangs  rd^^ged  misery, 
The  world  is  not  thy  friend,  nor  the  world's  law : 
The  world  affords  no  law  to  make  thee  rich ; 
Then  be  not  poor,  but  break  it,  and  take  this. 

— Romeo  and  Juliet^  F.,  i. 

With  all  his  feeling  for  the  glory  of 
Henry  V.,  Shakespeare  shows  his  sense 
of  the  waste  of  lives  in  iniquitous  wars. — 

Captain. — Trui_,.   to  speak,  sir,  and  with  no  addi- 
tion. 
We  go  to  gain  a  little  patch  of  ground. 
That  hath  in  it  no  pro'^t  but  the  name. 
To  pay  five  ducats,  five,  I  would  not  farm  it; 
Nor  will  it  yield  to  Norway,  or  the  Pole, 
A  ranker  rate,  should  it  be  sold  in  fee. 

Hamlet. — Why,  then  the  Polack  never  will  de- 
fend it. 

Captain. — Yes,  'tis  already  garrisoned. 

Hamlet. — Two  thousand  souls,  and  twenty  thou- 
sand ducats, 
Will  not  debate  the  question  of  this  straw  : 
This  is  the  imposthume  of  much  wealth  and  peace ; 
That  inward  breaks,  and  shows  no  cause  without 

Why  the  man  dies. 

— Hamlet ^  IV.f  iv. 

40 


Shakespeare:  the  Man 

There  are  passages  expressive  of  a 
sympathy  for  the  sufferings  of  animals 
which  appears  to  be  heart-felt. 

Duke   Senior— Come,  shall   we   go  and   kill   us 
venison  ? 
And  yet  it  irks  me,  the  poor  dappled  fools,— 
Being  native  burghers  of  this  desert  city,— 
Should,  in  their  own  confines,  with  forked  heads 
Have  their  round  haunches  gor'd. 

First  Lord.-.  Indeed,  my  lord, 

The  melancholy  Jaques  grieves  at  that ; 
And,  in  that  kind,  swears  you  do  more  usurp 
Than  doth  your  brother  that  hath  banish'd  you. 
To-day,  my  lord  of  Amiens,  and  myself, 
Did  steal  behind  him,  as  he  lay  along 
Under  an  oak,  whose  antique  root  peeps  out 
Upon  the  brook  that  brawls  along  this  wood : 
To  the  which  place  a  poor  sequester'd  stag. 
That  from  the  hunters'  aim  had  ta'en  a  hurt. 
Did  come  to  languish ;  and,  indeed,  my  lord. 
The  wretched  animal  heav'd  forth  such  groans. 
That  their  discharge  did  stretch  his  leathern  coat 
Almost  to  bursting ;  and  the  big  round  tears 
Cours'd  one  another  down  his  iuLocent  nose 
In  piteous  chase;  and  thus  the  hairy  fool, 
iviuch  marked  of  the  melancholy  Jaques, 
Stood  on  the  extremest  verge  of  the  swift  brook. 
Augmenting  it  with  tears. 

—As  You  Like  It,  II.,  L 
41 


Shakespeare:  the  Man 

So  the  Princess  in  Love's  Labour' s  Lost, 
Act  IV.,  Scene  !.,— 

As  I,  for  praise  alone,  now  seek  to  spill 

The  poor  deer's  blood,  that  my  heart  means  no  ill. 

Of  the  passage  in  the  second  part  of 
Henry  K/.,  (III.,  i.),  pathetically  describ- 
ing the  calf  driven  to  the  slaughter  house 
of  the  butcher,  and  the  dam  wailing  for 
her  young  one,  perhaps  no  more  can 
safely  be  said  than  tliat  it  passed  under 
the  hand  of  Shakespeare. 

The  language  which  passes  between 
men  and  women  in  the  plays  is  some- 
times indelicate  and  such  as  at  the  pres- 
ent day  would  imply  a  low  estimate  of 
womanhood.  But  this  is  of  the  time. 
Queen  Elizabeth  was  no  paragon  of  del- 
icacy either  in  manners  or  in  language. 
That  Shakespeare's  estimate  of  woman- 
hood was  not  low  he  has  shown  by  giv- 
ing us  a  gallery  of  female  characters 
ranging  in  variety,  within  female  limits, 
from  Beatrice  to  Juliet  or  Hero ;  but  all 
supreme  in  beauty  and  loveliness.    There 

42 


Shakespeare:  the  Man 

are  bad  women,  of  course,  such  ?s  Regan, 
Goneril,  and  Lady  Macbeth,  though  in 
Lady  Macbeth,  with  all  her  wickedness 
and  masculine  daring,  there  is  nothing 
unqueenly.  Brothel-keepers  and  aban- 
doned women  are  a  class  apart,  too  fa- 
miliar to  Shakespeare,  but  not  more  fa- 
miliar to  him  than  to  other  writers  and  to 
people  generally  in  that  age.  We  ap- 
preciate Shakespeare's  treatment  of  the 
female  character  more  highly  when  we 
con:>ider  how  unfavourable  in  all  proba- 
bility his  experience  had  been. 

Shakespeare  lived  long  before  the  ad- 
vent of  the  New  Woman,  and  in  a  state 
of  society  when  the  weaker  vessel  was 
more  dependent  for  protection  on  the 
stronger  than  it  is  now.  But  it  would  be 
difficult,  whatever  the  state  of  society 
might  be,  to  reconcile  Shakespeare's  view 
of  the  relation  between  husband  and  wife 
with  that  of  John  Stuart  Mill  or  his  fe- 
male disciples.  The  Taming  of  the  Shrew 
is  broad  farce,  though  perhaps  not  with- 
out a  more  serious  undertone;  and  we 

43 


Shakespeare:  the  Man 

may  set  down  as  dramatic  the  ultra-con- 
jugal speech  of  the  Shrew  at  the  end  of 
the  play  which  she  ends  by  putting  her 
hand  under  her  husband's  foot;  though 
there  are  some  points  in  it  which  might 
deserve  the  attention  of  ladies  who  de- 
claim against  the  tyranny  of  man,  as  if 
he  had  done  nothing  for  woman.  There 
is  nothing  farcical,  however,  in  the 
words  of  Beatrice  in  Much  Ado  About 
Nothinor, — 


And,  Benedick,  love  on,  I  will  requite  thee ; 
Taming  my  wild  heart  to  thy  loving  hand. 

—///.,  i. 

Or  in  those  of  Portia  in  The  Merchant  of 
Venice, — 

Portia. — You    see    me,   lord    Bassanio,  where   I 
stand. 
Such  as  I  am :  though,  for  myself  alone, 
I  would  not  be  ambitious  in  my  wish. 
To  wish  myself  much  better ;  yet,  for  you, 
I  would  be  trebled  twenty  times  myself; 
A  thousand  times  more  fair,  ten  thousand  times 
More  rich ; 

That  only  to  stand  high  on  your  account, 

44 


hakespeare:  the  Man 


I  might  in  virtues,  beauties,  livings,  friends, 
Exceed  account :  but  the  full  sum  of  nie 
Is  sum  of  something  :   which,  to  term  in  gross, 
Is  an  unlesson'd  girl,  unschool'd,  unpraclis'd  : 
Happy  in  this,  she  is  not  yet  so  old 
But  she  may  learn  :  and  happier  than  this, 
She  is  not  bred  so  dull  but  she  can  learn ; 
Happiest  of  all,  is,  that  her  gentle  spirit 
Commits  itself  to  yours  to  be  directed, 
As  from  her  lord,  her  governor,  hfr  king. 
Myself,  and  what  is  mine,  to  you,  and  yours 
Is  now  converted :  but  now  I  was  the  lord 
Of  this  fair  mansion,  master  of  my  servants. 
Queen  o'er  myself;  and  even  now,  but  now. 
This  house,  these  servants,  and  this  same  myself. 
Are  yours,  my  lord ;  I  give  them  with  this  ring; 
Which  when  you  part  from,  lose,  or  give  away. 
Let  it  presage  the  ruin  of  your  love. 
And  be  my  vantage  to  exclaim  on  you. 

— ///.,  it. 


The  sanctity  of  the  marriage  tie,  as  was 
said  before,  is  presented  with  the  poet's 
full  power. 

Portia's  success  as  an  advocate  cannot 
be  pleaded  as  encouraging  to  ladies  to 
enter  the  legal  profession.  It  will  be 
observed  that  she  gets  not  only  her  gar- 

45 


Shakespeare :  the  Man 

ments  but  her  notes  from  her  cousin 
Doctor  Bcllario  at  Padua. 

There  is  in  Loves  Labour  s  Lost  a  pas- 
sage highly  complimentary  to  the  female 
intellect. 

For  when  would  you,  my  lord,  or  you,  or  you, 

Have  found  the  ground  of  study's  excellence, 

Without  the  beauty  of  a  woman's  face  ? 

From  women's  eyes  this  doctrine  I  derive : 

They  are  the  ground,  the  books,  the  academes. 

From  whence  doth  spring  the  true  Promethean  fire. 

Why,  universal  plodding  prisons  up 

The  nimble  spirits  in  the  arteries; 

As  motion,  and  long-during  action,  tires 

The  sinewy  vigour  of  the  traveller. 

Now,  for  not  looking  on  a  woman's  face. 

You  have  in  that  forsworn  the  use  of  eyes; 

And  study,  too,  the  causer  of  your  vow : 

For  where  is  any  author  in  the  world. 

Teaches  such  beauty  as  a  woman's  eye  ? 

— IV.,  lit. 

Shakespeare's  moral  philosophy  is 
sound,  but  tolerant  and  liberal.  He 
seems  to  have  suspected  that  the  bounds 
between  virtue  and  vice  were  less  clear, 
and  that  characters  were  more  mixed 

46 


Sliukespeare :  the  Man 

than  moralists  commonly  assumed.  He 
sees  "a  soul  of  goodness  in  things  evil." 
"  The  web  of  our  life,"  he  says,  "  is  of  a 
mingled  yarn,  good  and  ill  together:  our 
virtues  would  be  proud,  if  our  faults 
whipp'd  them  not;  and  our  crimes  would 
despair,  if  they  were  not  cherished  by 
our  virtues  "  (^All's  Well  thai  Ends  Well, 
IV.,  Hi.). 

It  has  been  remarked  that  there  is 
not  the  slightest  allusion  to  the  grand 
struggle  with  Spain  or  to  the  Armada. 
The  account  of  this  may  be  that  Shakes- 
peare was  a  Court  playwright,  and  that 
war  with  Spain  was  not,  of  all  subjects, 
the  most  palatable  to  the  Court.  War 
with  Spain  was  forced  on  Elizabeth;  but 
her  own  leanings  probably  were  rather 
Spanish;  so,  even  more  decidedly  were 
those  of  her  successor.  Spain  was  the 
Grand  Monarchy,  and  the  alliance  had 
natural  attractions  for  Princes,  especially 
if  their  subjects  were  supposed  to  be 
mutinous.  Shakespeare,  however,  like 
a  true  dramatist,  was  unpolitical. 

47 


Shakespeare :  the  Man 

It  was  not  from  want  of  patriotism,  at 
all  e^'^nts,  that  he  makes  no  reference  to 
the  war  with  Spain  and  the  Armada. 
English  feeling  in  him  is  very  strong. 

This  royal  throne  of  kings,  this  scepter'd  isle, 
This  earth  of  majesty,  this  seat  of  Mars, 
This  other  Eden,  demi-paradise  ; 
This  fortress,  built  by  nature  for  herself. 
Against  infection,  and  the  hand  of  war : 
Tins  happy  breed  of  men,  this  little  world ; 
I'his  precious  stone  set  in  the  silver  sea, 
Which  serves  it  in  the  office  of  a  wall, 
Or  as  a  moat  defensive  to  a  house. 
Against  the  envy  of  less  happier  lands ; 
This  blcsi.ed  plot,  this  earth,  this  realm,  this  Eng- 
land, 
This  nut:e,  this  teeming  womb  of  royal  Icings, 
Fear'd  by  tlicir  bree  d,  and  famous  by  their  birth, 
Renowned  foi  their  deeds  as  far  from  home, 
(For  Christian  service,  and  true  chivalry,) 
As  is  the  sepulchre  in  stubborn  Jewry, 
Of  the  world's  ransom,  blessed  Mary's  son : 
This  land  of  such  dear  souls,  this  dear  dear  land. 
Dear  for  her  reputation  through  the  world. 
Is  now  leas'd  out  (I  die  pronouncing  it,) 
Like  to  a  tenement,  or  peUing  farm  : 
England,  bound  in  with  the  triumphant  sea, 
Whose  rocky  shore  beats  back  the  envious  siege 

48 


Shakespeare:  the  Man 


Of  watery  Neptune,  is  now  bound  in  with  shame, 
With  inky  blots,  and  rotten  parchment  bonds; 
That  England,  that  was  wont  to  conquer  others, 
Hath  made  a  shameful  conquest  of  itself: 
O,  would  the  scandal  vanish  with  my  life, 
How  happy  then  were  my  ensuing  death  ! 

— King  Richard  11,^  II.,  i. 


Shakespeare's  heart  evidently  goes  with 
Henry  V.  in  his  invasion  of  France  and 
sv^ells  with  patriotic  pride  as  he  recounts 
the  battle  of  Agincourt. 

Maritime  adventure  and  discovery  were 
a  great  feature  of  the  age.  About  these 
Shakespeare  is  rather  unaccountably 
silent,  though  there  are  abundant  refer- 
ences to  ships  and  seafaring  life.  The 
only  apparent  allusion  is  in  The  Tempest, 
where  they  land  on  an  undiscovered 
island.  '  Travellers'  tales  are  more  than 
once  subjects  of  satire,  though  Othello 
wins  the  heart  of  Desdemona  by  his 
story  of  wanderings  which  take  him 
among  the  Anthropophagi  and  the  men 
whose  heads  do  grow  beneath  their 
shoulders.     A  passage  in    The  Tempest 

49 


Shakespeare:  the  Man 


(III.,  iii.)  seems  to  suggest  the  idea  that  a 
race  of  men  gentler  than  the  people  of 
Europe  might  be  found  in  new  countries. 
Potatoes,  one  of  the  products  of  dis- 
covery, are  mentioned  in  The  Merry 
Wives  of  Windsor  (V.,  v.)  and  in  Troiliis 
and  Cressida  (V.,  ii.).  It  is  evident, 
however,  that  Shakespeare's  mind  did 
not  turn  much  in  that  direction. 

What  was  Shakespeare  in  religion  ? 
At  the  time  when  his  intellectual  life  be- 
gan, a  series  of  religious  revolutions  and 
counter-revolutions  had  been  closed  by 
the  Elizabethan  settlement;  a  compro- 
mise, framed  by  politicians  for  a  political 
object,  which  failed  from  the  outset,  as  it 
has  throughout,  to  satisfy  religious  aspira- 
tion, and  has  appeared  to  be  successful 
only  in  periods  of  spiritual  torpor.  Pu- 
riti'nism,  with  its  Genevan  theology,  was 
on  the  scene  and  was  assailing  tlie  relics 
of  Catholicism  in  the  liturgy  or  the 
vestiary,  and  rebelling  against  the  au- 
thority of  the  Bishops.  Martin  Marpre- 
late  was  railing  against   mitres.     More 

50 


Shakespeare:  the  Man 


thoroughgoing    than  the   Puritan,    who 
was  always  for  a  national  Establishment 
though     purged    of    Popery,    was    the 
Brownist,  who,  like  the  Independent  of 
an  after  day  and  the  Baptist,  was  for  an 
entire  separation  of  Church  from  State. 
Brownism,  as  a  revolutionary  movement, 
was  under  the  ban  of  the  Government. 
On  the  other  hand,  there  were  Pvoman 
Catholics  of  two  kinds;  those  of  the  old 
school,   national  and  patriotic,   ready  to 
fight  for  England  against  the  Armada; 
and  those  of  the  new,  Ultramontane,  and 
Jesuitical  school,  who  would  have  been 
ready  to  fight  with  the  Armada  against 
England.     Conscientious  Roman  Catho- 
lics were  Recusants,  refusing  to  attend 
the  worship  prescribed  by  lav/  and  in- 
curring   fines   by  their  non-attendance. 
But  besides  these  sects,    religious  con- 
troversies and  wars   had  not  failed  to 
produce  their  natural  effect  in  breeding 
among  men  of  more  daring  spirit,  or  per- 
haps more  libertine  lives,  total  scepticism 
or  indifference  to  religion.    Among  the 

51 


Shakespeare:  the  Man 

Bohemians  of  the  theatre  this  tendency 
was  likely  to  prevail.  Marlowe  is  ma- 
ligned as  a  blatant  atheist,  an  utterer  of 
horrible  and  damnable  opinion-  who  had 
written  a  book  against  the  Trinity  and 
defamed  Christ.  The  imputation  was 
extended  to  other  Bohemians. 

There  seems,  however,  to  have  been 
freethinking  of  a  more  serious  and  re- 
spectable kind.  In  1583  Giordano  Bruno, 
in  the  course  of  the  philosophical  wan- 
derings which  ended  in  Rome  and  at  the 
stake,  visited  England.  He  found  much 
that  was  not  to  his  liking;  dirty  streets, 
insolent  domestics,  and  at  Oxford  Dons 
thinking  more  of  their  academic  robes 
and  their  social  position  than  of  the  ad- 
vancement of  learning,  and  with  minds 
closed  against  new  truths.  But  in  Lon- 
don he  found  to  his  satisfaction  compara- 
tive freedom  of  thought  and  speech.  A 
circle,  of  which  Sir  Philip  Sidney  and  Sir 
Fulke  Greville  were  the  chiefs  and  of 
which  Bruno  was  a  member,  discussed 
questions  of  philosophy  and  science  with 

62 


Shakespeare:  the  Man 

closed  doors.  So  far  as  social  position 
was  concerned,  Shakespeare  might  pos- 
sibly have  found  his  way  into  that  circle. 

The  State  Church  was  in  a  very  low 
condition.  The  bulk  of  the  clergy  had 
turned  their  coats  under  Mary  and  then 
again  under  Elizabeth.  Of  spiritual  life 
there  was  probably  little  among  them. 
They  were  greatly  impoverished,  and 
iconoclasm  had  dilapidated  their  churches. 
Their  representatives  in  the  Shakespearian 
drama  are  Sir  Hugh  Evans,  who  appears 
in  The  Merry  Wives  of  Windsor  as  a 
boon  companion  and  a  butt,  quarrelling 
like  a  dog  and  going  out  to  fight  a  duel; 
and  Sir  Nathaniel,  who  plays  a  farcical 
part  in  Love's  Laboiifs  Lost. 

There  can  be  little  difficulty  in  pro- 
nouncing Shakespeare  a  Conformist,  as  a 
servant  of  the  Court  was  specially  bound 
to  be.  At  all  events  he  was  not  a  Non- 
conformist; for  he  ridicules  the  Noncon- 
formists all  round. 

If  men  could  be  contented  to  be  what  they  are, 
ther'^  were  no  fear  in  marriage  :  for  young  Charbon 

53 


Shakespeare:  the  Man 

the  Puritan,  and  old  Poysam  the  Papist,  howsoe'er 
their  hearts  are  severed  in  rehgion,  their  heads  are 
both  one,  they  may  joll  horns  together,  like  any  deer 
i'  'he  herd.      — All's  Well  thai  Ends  Well,  /.,  Hi. 

Though  honesty  be  no  Puritan,  yet  it  will  do  no 
hurt ;  it  will  wear  the  surplice  of  humility  over  the 
black  gown  of  a  big  heart. 

— AWs  Well  that  Ends  Well,  I.,  in. 

In  Twelfth-Night  (III.,  ii.)  Sir  Andrew 
Ague-cheek  says  "I  had  as  lief  be  a 
Brownist  as  a  politician." 

There  is  perhaps  a  slight  compliment 
to  the  conscientiousness  of  the  Puritans 
in  Twelfth-Night, — 

Maria. — Marry,  sir,  sometimes  he  is  a  kind  of 
Puritan. 

Sir  Andrew  Ague-cheek. — O,  if  I  thought  that,  I'd 
beat  him  like  a  dog. 

Sir  Toby  Belch. — What,  for  being  a  Puritan  ?  thy 
exquisite  reason,  dear  knight  ? 

Sir  Andrew  Ague-cheek, — I  have  no  exquisite  rea- 
son for't,  but  I  have  reason  good  enough. 

Maria. — The  devil  a  Puritan  that  he  is,  or  any 
thing  constantly  but  a  time  pleaser.  — //.,  Hi. 

Religious  pretensions  do  not  escape  rid- 

54 


. 


Shakespeare:  the  Man 

icule.    ''  Signior  Bassanio,"  says  Gratiano 
in  the  Merchant  of  Venice,  "hear  me: 

"If  I  do  not  put  on  a  sober  habit, 
Talk  with  respect,  and  swear  but  now  and  then, 
Wear  prayer-books  in  my  pocket,  look  demurely 
Nay  more,  while  grace  is  saying,  hood  mine  eyes 
Thus  with  my  hat,  and  sigh,  and  say,  amen ; 
Use  all  the  observance  of  civility, 
Like  one  well  studied  in  a  sad  ostent 
To  please  his  grandam,  never  trust  me  more." 

— //.,  it. 

Least  of  all  can  it  be  maintained  that 
Shakespeare  was  a  Roman  Catholic. 
Would  it  have  been  possible  for  a  Roman 
Catholic,  even  dramatically,  to  have  writ- 
ten this  i' — 


King  Philip. — Here  comes  the  holy  legate  of  the 
pope. 

Pandiilph.  —  Hail,    you    anointed    deputies    of 
heaven ! — 
To  thee  king  John,  my  holy  errand  is. 
I  Pandulph,  of  fair  Milan  cardinal. 
And  from  pope  Innocent  the  legate  here, 
Do,  in  his  name,  religiously  demand. 
Why  thou  against  the  church,  our  holy  mother, 

55 


Shakespeare:  the  Man 

So  wilfully  dost  spurn ;  and,  force  perforce, 
Keep  Stephen  Langton,  chosen  archbishop 
Of  Canterbury,  from  that  holy  see  ? 
This,  in  our  'foresaid  holy  father's  name, 
Pope  Innocent,  I  do  demand  of  thee. 

King  John. — What  earthly  name   to  interroga- 
tories, 

Can  task  the  free  breath  of  a  sacred  king  ? 

Thou  canst  not,  cardinal,  devise  a  name 

So  slight,  unworthy,  and  ridiculous. 

To  charge  me  to  an  answer,  as  the  pope. 

Tell  him  this  tale :    and  from  the  mouth  of  Eng- 
land, 

Add  thus  much  more, — That  no  Italian  priest 

Shall  tithe  or  toil  in  our  dominions; 

But  as  we  under  heaven  are  supreme  head. 

So,  under  him,  that  great  supremacy, 

"Where  we  do  reign,  we  will  alone  uphold, 

Without  the  assistance  of  a  mortal  hand : 

So  tell  the  pope ;  all  reverence  set  apart. 

To  him,  and  his  usurp'd  authority. 

King  Philip, — Brother  in  England,  you  blaspheme 

in  this. 
King  John. — Though  you,  and  all  the  kings  of 
Christendom, 

Are  led  so  grossly  by  this  meddling  priest, 

Dreading  the  curse  that  money  may  buy  out ; 

And,  by  the  merit  of  vile  gold,  dross,  dust. 

Purchase  corrupted  pardon  of  a  man, 

56 


( 


Shakespeare :  the  Man 

Who,  in  that  sale,  sells  pardon  from  himself; 
Though  you,  and  all  the  rest,  so  grossly  led. 
This  jugf^ling  witchcraft  with  revenue  cherish; 
Yet  I,  alone,  alone  do  me  oppose 
Against  the  pope,  and  count  his  friends  my  foes. 

— King  John,  lU.^  i. 

It  is  true  Shakespeare  treats  Friars  re- 
spectfully in  Romeo  and  Juliet,  and  else- 
where. But  this  shows  that  he  was  a 
large-minded  artist,  not  that  he  was  a 
Roman  Catholic.  The  Friars  were  acces- 
sories of  his  Italian  scenes.  To  be  sure 
he  might  think  them,  though  not  minis- 
ters of  a  purer  religion,  characters  more 
poetic,  perhaps  more  spiritual,  than  Sir 
Hugh  Evans  and  Sir  Nathaniel.  That  his 
respect  for  Friars  was  not  religious  seems 
to  bj  shown  when  he  says, — 

Cloivn. — As  fit  as  ten  groats  is  for  the  hand  of  an 
attorney,  as  your  French  crown  for  taffata  punk,  as 
Tib's  rush  for  Tom's  forefinger,  as  a  pancake  for 
Shrove-Tuesday,  a  morris  for  May-day,  as  the  nail  to 
his  hole,  the  cuckold  to  his  horn,  as  a  scolding  quean 
to  a  wrangling  knave,  as  the  nun's  lip  to  the  friar's 
mouth ;  nay,  as  the  pudding  to  his  skin 

—AWs  Well  that  Ends  Well,  II.,  it. 
57 


Shakespeare:  the  Man 

The  ghost  and  the  purgatory  in  Hamlet 
are  evidently  a  mere  part  of  the  fiction. 
No  belief  is  indicated  in  purgatory  any 
more  than  in  ghosts. 

A  Conformist  we  may  safely  take 
Shakespeare  to  have  been;  whether  he 
was  a  church-goer,  we  have  no  means 
of  telling.  Atheistical  or  irreligious,  he 
evidently  was  not.  His  general  spirit  is 
religious.  With  him,  to  be  where  "  holy 
bells  knoll  to  church,"  is  synonymous 
with  civilized  life.  The  Almighty  has 
fixed  his  canon  against  self-slaughter. 
In  Twelfth-Night  Malvolio,  here  evidently 
serious,  when  asked  whether  he  assents 
to  a  degrading  opinion  of  the  soul,  an- 
swers that  he  thinks  nobly  of  the  soul, 
and  by  no  means  assents  to  the  opinion. 
In  Measure  for  Measure  there  is  a  re- 
spectful allusion  to  the  doctrine  of  the 
Redemption. 

Isabella. —  Alas!     Alas! 

Why,  all  the  souls  that  were,  were  forfeit  once ; 
And  He  that  might  the  vantage  best  have  took, 
Fc  'lid  out  the  remedy.  — //.,  H, 

58 


/ 


Shakespeare :  the  Man 

In  The  Merchant  of  l^enice,  mercy  in 
man  reflects  an  attribute  of  God. 

On  the  other  hand,  when  Shakespeare 
touches  the  problem  of  human  existence 
or  that  of  the  world  to  come,  we  cannot 
help  feeling  that  we  are  in  contact  with 
a  mind  more  like  that  of  Giordano 
Bruno,  or  rather  that  of  the  Elizabethan 
liberals,  than  that  of  an  orthodox  Angli- 
can Divine.  The  soliloquy  in  Hamlet 
presents  nothing  sceptical;  yet  it  and 
Hamlet's  general  utterances  are  pervaded 
by  the  spirit  of  one  to  whom  the  state 
of  man,  present  and  future,  is  an  un- 
solved mystery.  We  do  not  know**  in 
that  sleep  of  death  what  dreams  may 
come."  The  world  beyond  the  grave  is 
**the  undiscovered  country  from  whose 
bourn  no  traveller  returns."  To  die  is 
to  ''go  we  know  not  where."  "We 
are  such  stuff  as  dreams  are  made  on; 
and  our  little  life  is  rounded  with  a 
sleep."  This  globe  of  ours  "  like  an  un- 
substantial pageant,  will  vanish  and 
leave  not  a  wreck  behind."    That  Shakes- 

59 


Shakespeare :  the  Man 

pcare  himself  speaks  in  such  passages 
cannot  be  affunicd,  but  may  surely, 
without  much  improbability,  be  divined. 

Among  the  absurdities  of  the  Baconian 
theory,  not  one  is  greater  than  the  idea 
that  Bacon  could  have  passed,  in  chang- 
ing his  kind  of  composition,  from  the 
scientific  orthodoxy  of  his  acknowledged 
works  to  the  frame  of  mind  characteris- 
tic of  the  Shakespearian  drama. 

Of  the  greatness  of  Shakespeare's 
genius,  this  is  not,  any  more  than  of  the 
features  of  his  art,  the  place  to  speak. 
His  genius  is  so  great  that  it  has  raised 
the  whole  Elizabethan  drama  to  a  height 
of  reputation  which  probably  none  of  its 
other  writers,  with  the  possible  excep- 
tion of  Marlowe,  could  of  themselves 
have  attained. 


60 


"  The  special  characteristic  of  this  book  which  makes  it 
invaluable  for  Shakespeare  clubs  and  for  schools  is  its 
sugs[cstivenei>s.  The  author  does  not  do  the  work  for  the 
stuilent  but  directs  him  how  to  do  it,  and  stimulates  him  to 
do  it  for  himself.  .  .  .  We  state,  without  hcsitatioiii 
that  this  book  will  be  of  the  highest  usefulness  in  the  study 
of  Shakespeare;  and  that  it  is  an  addition  to  Shakespearian 
literature  which  is  of  real  and  permanent  value." — Ficdetio 
C.  Smedley,  President  N.  Y.  Shakesfearc  Club. 


HOW  TO  STUDY 


TEXT  BY  WILLIAM  H.  FLEMING 
Author  of  "A  Bibliography  of  the  First  Folios,"  etc. 

Introduction  by  W,  J.  ROLFE,  Litt.D. 

SPECIFIC  A  TIONS:    She,  5  x  7  /  Pages,  4.^?:  Binding,  linen 
cloih  :  Type,  Brevier  .•  Price,  Si-oo  nut. 


II 

"Wi 

HIS  little  book  has  received  altogether  unusual 
appreciation  from  autliorities  on  Shakespeare 
work,  as  the  following  notices  show.  It  is 
perhaps  as  practical  and  helpful  an  aid  to 
intclligenv    and    appreciative    study   as  can 

anywhere  be  obtained,  and   has  many  unique  features  of 

its  own. 

Personal  Comments  from  Weii-known 
Shakespeare  Scholars 

BARRETT  WENDELL 
Assistant  Professor  of  English,  Harvard  University 

"  A  very  fev/  glanccG  nufllce  to  show  the  admirable  spirit  of 
yo'.ir  work,  in  nothing  more  evident  than  in  the  unobtrusiva 
certainty  and  brcvityof  your  touch  throughout." 


GEORGE  LANSING  RAYMOND,  L.H.D. 

Professor  o?  /Esthetics,  Princeton  University 

'*  Mr.  Fleming's  book  seems  to  me  to  show  not  only  thorough 
study  and  knowledge  of  the  subject  in  hand,  but  exceptional 
poetic  insight,  keen  appreciation  of  artistic  requirements,  and 
remarkable  powers  of  logical  analysis.  It  is  well  entitled 
'  How  to  Study  Shakespeare,'  and  I  hope  it  will  make  its  way 
into  classes  organized  for  that  purpose. 

THOS.  R.  PRICE,  M.A.,  LL.D. 

Professor  of  the  English  Languaji^e  and  Literature,  Columbia 

University,  New  York 

"  When  I  start  my  next  set  of  students  in  their  Shakespeare 
work  I  shall  be  so  glad  to  point  out  your  [Mr.  Fleming's]  book 
to  them  as  a  guide  in  the  methodical  study  of  the  p^ays.*^ 

MRS.  MAUD  HILLS  EWING 
President  Stratford  Shakespeare  Club,  New  York 

"  Now  that  schools  are  awaking  to  their  responsibilities,  and 
effort  is  being  made  to  reveal  the  best  in  English  literature, 
even  to  the  youngest  student,  the  need  for  better  helps  toward 
this  end  is  sorely  felt.  This  is  especially  true  in  the  study  of 
Shakespeare. 

"  Hhherto  this  need  has  not  been  so  met  that  the  untrained 
mind  would  take  more  than  a  surface  view  of  what  it  reads,  or 
would  be  led  into  a  deeper  study  of  Shakespeare's  art.  To 
sttpp'y  this  need  was  your  purpose  and  you  have  succeeded  in 
so  doing. 

"The  play  should  firsst  be  read  entirely  through  with  the 
study  of  such  notes  and  suggestions  as  'yo^x  ha  ve  offered. 
After  this  the  student  will  be  ready  to  begin  the  more  critical 
study  which  your  questions  suggest. 

"  In  the  hand  of  the  wise  teacher  or  club  leader  your  book 
will  lead  to  most  enjoyable  study." 

FRANKLIN  H.  SARGENT 
Fres'dent  the  Asnerican  School  of  the  Draniiitic  Arts,  New  York 

"  I  have  read  with  much  interest  and  instruction  Mr.  Flem- 
ing's woiic  entitled  '  How  to  Study  Shakespeare.' 

"  The  endorsement  of  Professor  Rolfe  alone  would  prove, 
without  my  own  personal  knov/ledge,  the  exceptional  worth  or 
the  book." 

nRS.  ABBY  SAGE  RICHARDSON 

"I  felt  quite  sure  that  anything  Mr.  Fleming  would  do  would 
be  scholarly,  and  I  find  his  book  both  scholarly  and  practical, 
i.  e.,  suited  to  the  practical  needs  of  students  of  Shakespeare. 
It  will,  I  know,  be  excellent  for  use  in  clubs  for  Shakespeare 
study." 

FRANK  S.  HOFFHAN,  Ph.D. 

P*'o5e8Sor  of  Fliiilosophy,  Uruon  College 

*'  1  have  no  hesitation  in  saying  that  I  regard  I\ir.  Fleming's 
'How  to  Study  Shakespeare'  as  by  far  the  most  serviceable 
book  on  thnt  subject  of  which  I  have  any  knowledge.  His  plan 
is  an  admirable  one,  and  is  carried  out  witn  great  clearness 
and  force.  It  is  a  model  introduction  and  guide,  and  its  uso 
ought  to  become  universal." 


JOHN  DENISON  CHAMPL5N,  M.A. 
Associate  Editor  Standard  Dictionary 

"1  have  examined  with  great  interest  your  little  book 
entitled  'How  to  Study  Shakespeare,'  and  I  am  astonished 
at  the  amount  of  valuable  matter  condensed  in  so  small  a 
space.  Indeed,  I  do  not  see  why  the  ordinary  reauer  or  student 
should  need  any  notes  other  than  those  you  have  supplied 
for  the  eight  plays  selected. 

"  Your  i^p-neral  plan  seems  to  me  admirable  and  well  cal- 
culated, from  the  historical  introduction  to  the  conclviding' 
cjuestions,  for  the  use  of  teachers  and  students,  to  arouse  an 
interest  in  the  subject,  and  at  the  same  time  to  satisfy  that 
interest." 


What  the  S^^agazines  and  S^lewspapers  Say 

AMHERST   nONTHLY 
June,   1898 

"This  volume  is  an  invaluable  addition  to  one's  Shakes- 
peare litrary.  Its  aim  is  to  make  possible  to  individuals  and 
clubs  the  intelligent,  appreciative  study  of  Shakespeare. 

"The  author  has  succeeded  most  admirably  in  his  en- 
deavor." 


prove, 
,'ortli  or 


would 
actical, 
■speare. 
jspeare 


jming's 
iceable 
lis  plan 
iarnt-ss 
its  U6C 


WISCONSIN  JOURNAL  OF  EDUCATION 

June,  1898 

"It  illustrates  the  method  bv  means  of  ei^^ht  plays, 
Othello,  Twelfth  Night,  Julius  Cfesar,  Merchant  of  Venice, 
Macbeth,  Midsummer  Night's  Dream,  King  Richard  the  Third 
and  The  Tempest.  The  plays  are  not  printed  in  this  book, 
which  may  be  used  wi;h  any  edition  of  them.  The  method 
begins  with  a  study  of  tlie  sources  of  the  plot,  that  tlie  jrenius 
of  the  dramatist  may  be  apparent  from  a  comparison  of  his 
work  with  the  crude  material  which  he  used.  The  second 
part  of  the  method  consists  of  explanatory  notes  to  facilitate 
the  interpretation  of  the  text.  The  third  presents  a  table  of 
acts  and  scenes  in  which  each  character  appears  for  character 
studies  and  groupings  of  minor  characters,  so  that  in  clubs  a 
single  reader  may  carry  two  or  three.  The  fourth  part  coU" 
sists  of  questions  so  arranged  as  to  direct  attention  to  all  the 
important  topics  suggested  by  the  play,  and  especiolly  to  em- 
phasize the  dramatic  construction.  This  work  is  very  well 
done  and  v/ill  be  appreciated  by  students  and  readf^rs,  who 
often  miss  what  is  mo!;t  essential.  One  studying  with  such 
help  will  soon  learn  how  to  attack  a  nevv-  drama,  and  will  find 
that  his  appreciation  for  the  art  oi  Shakespciire  grows  rapidly. 
The  concluding  section  gives  a  list  of  books  which  v/ill  be 
helpful  in  tlie  studies.  Among  the  multitude  of  works  on 
Sliakespeare  wc  know  of  none  whch  undertakes  the  kmd  of 
s<"rvice  h.-re  n  ndcred,  and  most  heartilv  commend  th»»  vol- 
ume to  the  favor  of  our  readers.'" 


REVIEW  OF  REVIEWS 

July,  1898,  P.  115 

"This book  should  prove  especially  helpful  to  Shakespeare 
clubs.  It  f  oi-ms  an  excellent  guide  10  the  study  of  eight  of  the 
principal  plays.  In  the  case  of  each  play  the  sourc»  of  the  plot 
IS  first  considered  ;  then  follow  explanatory  notes  on  the  text, 
a  table  of  acts  and  scenes  in  which  each  character  appears 
(useful  in  assigning  readings  to  members  of  clubs),  a  series  of 
questions  on  subjects  suggested  by  the  play,  and  finally  a  list 
of  books  for  collateral  reading." 


THE  CHAUTAUQUAN 

October,  1898 

•' '  How  to  Study  Shakespeare '  is  the  title  of  a  very  valuable 
guide  intended  for  the  Shakespearian  student.  Eight  plays 
are  studied,  and  each  study  is  divided  into  four  pans.  First, 
there  is  an  explanation,  simple  and  lucid,  of  the  source  of  the 
plot.  This  is  followed  by  notes,  which  are  explanatory  and 
critical  in  character.  The  third  division  is  a  table  of  the  char- 
acters, which  shows  in  what  acts  and  scenes  each  character 
appears,  how  many  lines  each  speaks,  and  what  minor  charac- 
ters can  be  represented  by  one  person  in  a  club  or  reading 
circle.  In  the  fourth  division  are  search  questions  on  each  act 
of  the  drama  and  on  the  drama  as  a  whole,  some  of  which  are 
answered.  Dr.  W.  J.  Rolfe,  the  Shakespearian  critic,  is  the 
author  of  the  introduction,  This  volume  should  be  in  the 
hands  of  every  student  of  these  dramas." 


THE  CRITIC,  NEW  YORK 

"  In  '  How  to  Study  Shakespeare '  Mr,  W.  H.  Fleming  has 
had  especially  in  mind  the  wants  of  Shakespeare  clubs.  The 
book  contains  historical  introductions,  explanatory  notes,  and 
questions  for  study,  review  and  discussion,  on  eight  of  the 
plays,  'Othello,'  'Twelfth  Night,'  'Julius  Caesar,*  'The  Mer- 
chant of  Venice,'  'Macbeth,'  'A  Midsummer  Night's  Dream,' 
'Richard  the  Third'  and  'The  Tempest.'  The  annotations 
are  not  intended  to  supersede  those  in  critical  editions  that  also 
include  the  text  of  the  plays,  but  they  will  be  helpful  to  mem- 
bers of  clubs  who  may  not  be  able  to  consult  such  editions. 
With  each  play  there  is  also  a  table  of  acts  and  scenes  in  which 
each  character  appears,  and  the  number  of  lines  spoken  by 
each  ;  also,  groui)ings  of  minor  characters,  to  be  read  in  a  club 
by  one  person.  This  matter  will  be  useful  in  "casting"  the 
plays  for  reading.  Books  for  collateral  reading  are  also  sug- 
gested. Dr.  Rolfe  contributes  an  introduction  mainly  devoted 
to  the  organization  and  management  of  reading?  clubs.  Mr. 
Pleining  is  already  known  as  ttie  author  of  a  '  iiibb'ography  of 
the  First  Folios'  and  the  editor  of  three  plays  in  the  'Bank- 
side  '  edition  of  the  dramatist.    (Doubleday  &  McClure  Co.)" 

DOUBLEDAY  &  McCLURE  COMPAKY 

Hl-lSS  033t  2Sth  Street,  New  York  City 


Mr. 


